Vertical displacements of the upper lip, lower lip, and jaw during speech were recorded for groups of 1-, 2-, and 6-year-olds and adults to examine if control over these articulators develops sequentially. All movement traces were amplitude- and time-normalized. The developmental course of upper lip, lower lip, and jaw control was examined by quantifying age-related changes in the similarity of each articulator's movement patterns to those produced by adult subjects and by same-age peers. In addition, differences in token-to-token stability of articulatory movement were assessed among the different age groups. The experimental findings revealed that 1- and 2-year-old children's jaw movements were significantly more adult-like than their upper and lower lip movements, which were more variable. In contrast, upper and lower lip movement patterns became more adult-like with maturation. These findings suggest that the earliest stages of speech motor development are constrained by the nonuniform development of articulatory control, with the jaw preceding the lips. The observed developmental patterns suggest that the properties of the oral motor control system significantly influence the pattern of speech sound acquisition.

Studies of the development of mastication in the normal growing individual have received little attention in the literature. The aim of this study was to determine whether changes in oral motor function occurred during growth. Ninety healthy individuals with normal occlusion were divided into...

Speech-related motions of small markers attached to the tongue, lower lip, and lower jaw of 44 normal young adult talkers of American English were analyzed to estimate the relative accuracy of selected methods for decoupling tongue and lip motions from ongoing jaw motion when all movements are...

Lip and jaw movements were studied longitudinally in 19-month-old children as they acquired the voicing contrast for /p/ and /b/. A movement tracking system obtained lip and jaw kinematics as participants produced the target utterances /papa/ and /baba/. Laryngeal adjustments were also tracked...

Presents a study which aims to determine the kinematic parameter differences exhibited by normal and motorically delayed children on the gross motor activity of running. Methods and procedures of the study; Results and discussion of the study; Implications of the study.

Offers advice to teachers on how to help children build coordination and balance skills while playing with riding toys. Creating an area designed specifically for activities involving vigorous and rapid movement; Using deep-well wagons with padding for non-sitting infants; Choosing walk-behind...

Focuses on the importance of dramatic play in developing the motor skills of children. Includes pop-up play for infants, dress-up for toddlers and problem schooling for preschoolers; Relevance of the creative play in the physical expression of toddlers; Dramatic play for children with special...

Focuses on the gross motor skill development of a seven-year-old girl with trisomy 18. Trisomy's association with cardiovascular and skeletal malformations; Patient report; Importance of referring infants with trisomy 18 to early intervention programs and therapy.

Looks at time as a critical factor in the development of skills involving movement and coordination. Views of researchers in relation to what happens the first six hours after a motor skill is learned; Findings reported by Henry H. Holcomb a professor of psychiatry at the University of Maryland...